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Cleanup problems hinder rebuild for some October fire survivors

Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)

Aug. 04--After the rubble was cleared from Diana Breslich's burned property in the hills northeast of Santa Rosa early this year, she identified two major problems with the work: Crews extracted too much soil, and they removed or damaged her two septic tanks.

So Breslich, who participated in the public debris cleanup launched after the October fires, turned back to the government for help. Officials had said damage caused by debris removal would be fixed, and she thought she had a strong case, especially given that her built-in pool had become an elevated "island" -- a stark example of how deeply her property was scraped.

"Anybody who's ever seen the site keeps saying, 'Oh yeah, yours was overexcavated,'?" said Breslich, 72.

Then came the letter.

Addressed "Dear Fire Survivor" and signed by officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state Office of Emergency Services, the correspondence Breslich received in June informed her the "additional assistance" she requested was outside the scope of what the public agencies could provide. It did not say why.

Breslich later learned her septic tank issues might still be addressed, but officials from Cal OES, which is handling the complaints, haven't been able to tell her exactly why they can't help with her cleanup complaint.

She estimates refilling her property with the necessary amount of soil will require 60 dump trucks and cost more than $50,000 -- money she will have to draw from insurance funds that could otherwise help pay for construction of her new home.

Breslich is among nearly 240 Northern California fire survivors who received a letter about debris removal issues the government determined it can't fix. The public program removed 2.2 million tons of debris from more than 4,500 properties across Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties.

The survivors were told their cases were examined through field observations, a civil engineer's assessment and reviews from senior officials at FEMA and Cal OES, but Breslich isn't convinced her property got a close enough look.

"I can't see a report that shows that, yes, we looked at this and found these findings, and we feel for some reason that this is not overexcavated, but it was appropriate for the site," Breslich said. "Maybe there is something really behind their judgment that I'm unaware of, but it seems like I should be able to have access to that information."

Sonoma County is trying to help Breslich and other fire survivors in similar situations, hoping to narrow the list of people whose complaints were denied, or at least provide them more detailed information about the decision. But that's proven difficult.

"If their claim is being denied, they should at least know why," said Michael Gossman, the deputy county administrator in charge of the county's Office of Recovery and Resiliency. "We don't have that information. And that makes it difficult for us to advocate on their behalf or even understand that it is a legitimate denial, which I'm sure there are some people that are being legitimately denied."

Gossman said he recently received documentation of the range of reasons behind the denials, but county leaders are pushing for more detailed explanations to provide to fire survivors.

Getting access to those documents has proven to be a bureaucratic headache, involving multiple layers of government agencies whose representatives say they either don't have the information or can't release all of it.